a great salesperson will never be selling something that they don't believe actually helps the customer
This seems very much like a No True Scotsman fallacy.
Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
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Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#12>David Mamet must not have known a lot of salespeople, to have this view of what a good salesperson is, because that is definitely not how great salespeople work. If I wrote a story about a politician who committed suicide, would you say "You must not know a lot of politicians, to have this view of what a good politician is, because suicide is definitely not what makes a great politician"?
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Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#13>David Mamet must not have known a lot of salespeople, to have this view of what a good salesperson is, because that is definitely not how great salespeople work. If I wrote a story about a politician who committed suicide, would you say "You must not know a lot of politicians, to have this view of what a good politician is, because suicide is definitely not what makes a great politician"?
It's hilarious that the writer uses subtly flawed logic to convince the reader that shady and unethical salespeople simply doesn't exist in the real world.
Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#14a great salesperson will never be selling something that they don't believe actually helps the customer This seems very much like a No True Scotsman fallacy.
Perhaps it would be better to say: "a salesperson is unlikely to maximize their potential selling something that they don't believe actually helps the customer"
There are great salespeople the world over selling products they don't believe in — after all, great products tend to sell themselves — but you can bet your bottom dollar they'd be doing an even better job if they did believe in the product.
Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#15a great salesperson will never be selling something that they don't believe actually helps the customer This seems very much like a No True Scotsman fallacy.
Based on the sales people I have known, most would pretty much say anything to close a deal. Though the really good ones seem to be able to convince themselves that the product they are selling really is awesome. As soon as they stop selling that product they go back to their old opinions on it being a POS.
Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#16>David Mamet must not have known a lot of salespeople, to have this view of what a good salesperson is, because that is definitely not how great salespeople work. If I wrote a story about a politician who committed suicide, would you say "You must not know a lot of politicians, to have this view of what a good politician is, because suicide is definitely not what makes a great politician"?
It's hilarious that the writer uses subtly flawed logic to convince the reader that shady and unethical salespeople simply doesn't exist in the real world.
I don't see how I did such a thing. Of course shady and unethical salespeople exist: just walk into a mobile phone shop to meet one.
I'm saying that by and large, great salespeople are not shady and unethical, though.
Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#17>David Mamet must not have known a lot of salespeople, to have this view of what a good salesperson is, because that is definitely not how great salespeople work. If I wrote a story about a politician who committed suicide, would you say "You must not know a lot of politicians, to have this view of what a good politician is, because suicide is definitely not what makes a great politician"?
Mamet wrote a story about salespeople where all of them have highly dubious ethics ranging from being outright thieves to being conmen, and the most successful of the lot is willing to destroy someone's life to earn himself a cadillac.
From some of the other comments, it sounds like I misinterpreted Mamet's intent - he apparently wasn't looking to generalise to all salespeople - but still, it seems to me the comment is fair based on this particular piece of evidence.
Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#18 Successful salespeople don't pressure or bullshit the
prospect into a sale. They are persistent, but they are
always focused on achieving a deal where it will benefit
all parties.
Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#19a great salesperson will never be selling something that they don't believe actually helps the customer This seems very much like a No True Scotsman fallacy.
Based on the sales people I have known, most would pretty much say anything to close a deal. Though the really good ones seem to be able to convince themselves that the product they are selling really is awesome. As soon as they stop selling that product they go back to their old opinions on it being a POS.
I guess some people might manage to bullshit themselves into thinking the product is awesome when it's not... then again, even in those cases, there is presumably some element of the product that is awesome, otherwise they couldn't believe such a thing?
Self-delusion is a powerful force, but smart people need more than that to achieve any kind of lasting result.
Re: Sales comes out of who you genuinely are
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Based on the sales people I have known, most would pretty much say anything to close a deal. Though the really good ones seem to be able to convince themselves that the product they are selling really is awesome. As soon as they stop selling that product they go back to their old opinions on it being a POS.
I guess some people might manage to bullshit themselves into thinking the product is awesome when it's not... then again, even in those cases, there is presumably some element of the product that is awesome, otherwise they couldn't believe such a thing? Self-delusion is a powerful force, but smart people need more than that to achieve any kind of lasting result.
From what I understand they often start with some sort of brainwashing, they are also taught weird beliefs like "every time a customer says no the odds of the next customer saying yes will increase".
I guess it will depend on what the product being sold is, enterprise software is probably somewhat different to timeshares or double glazing.
It is worth bearing in mind though that some of the best salesmen throughout history have probably been people who were knowingly selling scams.